Trying to Pin Down the Mosaic of Millennial Tastes

The television industry is focusing a great deal of attention on millennials these days. Billions of dollars are in play, along with the reputations of industry executives who view this vast, diverse generation — generally defined as those born between 1977 and 1995 — as the hot consumers of choice in a bewilderingly changing business.

It is as if the companies are throwing a bunch of money at the millennial wall, hoping some of it sticks. Verizon Communications and Hearst have teamed up to produce two new multiplatform online video channels, one aimed at “millennials from the heartland,” whoever those are. Condé Nast Entertainment has come up with a demographic called the “cultured millennial,” whose members apparently prefer artisanal beer to kegs. Unveiling its new streaming service, HBONow, HBO said it would be a heat-seeking “millennial missile.”

But what, as Freud might have asked if he lived in America in 2016, do millennials want? Does anyone really know? Is it fair to lump together a group of people ages 21 to 39? I was curious. I decided to conduct my own nonscientific study of millennials and their attitudes toward television.

It is not hard to find a millennial; there are 79.8 million in the United States. At the Brooklyn Roasting Company’s branch in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, for instance, I found one right there at the counter, arguing with the barista about what “refill” means. He was not free to talk, but Rob Szypko, 25, who was looking up stuff on his laptop, had a moment. He took off his headphones.

“I struggle with the term millennial,” he said. “Maybe this is a very millennial thing to say, but I don’t feel I’m of the same mind as everyone else just because I happened to be born in the same 15-year life span.”

He had a point. Older people tend to lump millennials together as basically a huge, mysterious group of entitled young people on their phones all the time. They’re fun to mock, just as the baby boomers and Generation X were mocked back in the day.

“I think there’s something wrong with this generation,” says Jack Donaghy, the “30 Rock” character played by Alec Baldwin, when a millennial job applicant announces that he has to leave for his “ironic kickball league” and that he is “not interested in this position unless I’m going to be constantly praised.”

Unlike that person, or, say, the constantly plugged-in, constantly high, constantly hapless millennial protagonists of “Broad City,” Mr. Szypko (pronounced ZIP-co) already has a respectable job — he works in city government. But he does not own a television set. He mostly watches shows on Netflix and Hulu. He won’t commit to a series unless he is sure it’s going to be good. He does not like to be told what he likes.

“One of the things people chafe at is the sense that other people are curating things for them,” he said, speaking of his age group. “If Netflix says, ‘Hey, Rob, we think you might like this title,’ and it’s too on the nose, it removes part of the fun of discovering an experience for yourself. If I don’t have to scroll past the second line of my Netflix page to find what I want, something is wrong.”

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Ryley Pogensky, 26, at his friend Camilla Claiborn’s loft in Williamsburg. Mr. Pogensky was dismissive of TV programs attempting to portray his generation. “They use, like, slang that no one uses, that your dad would use,” he said.CreditDanny Ghitis for The New York Times

Leaving Mr. Szypko to his devices, I set out for Williamsburg, another millennial-heavy section of Brooklyn. I found two — Austin McAllister and Ryley Pogensky, both 26 — on a street corner, trying to attract the attention of their friend Danielle, who was crossing the street 20 feet away with her headphones on. She did not respond, even when all three of us shouted, so they sent her a text message to alert her to our location.

“People have a far-reaching idea of who millennials are, but I don’t know what that word means,” Ms. McAllister, a singer, said.

Mr. Pogensky, who identified himself as an editor at a “millennial media company,” was dismissive of TV programs attempting to portray his generation. (“Girls,” for instance.) “They try far too hard — that notion of the over-millenniated hipster,” he said. “They use, like, slang that no one uses, that your dad would use,” he said.

“LOL,” Ms. McAllister said.

“She’s using that sarcastically, rather than in reality,” Mr. Pogensky said.

They have televisions, but they do not have cable. (“No one has cable,” said Danielle, 34, who had finally arrived on the corner and who did not give her last name.) They have had a variety of jobs (Danielle: nurse, maid, sex worker.) Their tastes are almost aggressively idiosyncratic.

Ms. McAllister, for instance, said she had watched virtually every episode of “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit,” because of her love for Mariska Hargitay. Mr. Pogensky said he watched the film “Mean Girls” “like once a week.”

“I’ll binge-watch ‘House of Cards,’ and then I’ll watch ‘Daria,’” he said, referring to the classic turn-of-the-millennium animated series about an acerbic high school student.

The three of them left for brunch — it was 3 p.m. — but it got me thinking about the great challenge for media companies: How do you appeal to people with such splintered, diffuse tastes, who crave novelty and individual experiences and who do not want to be part of a herd?

“They’re the most diverse generation of adults in U.S. history, so that’s a big issue for the entertainment industry,” said Jason Dorsey, whose job as chief strategy officer and millennials researcher at the Center of Generational Kinetics in Austin, Tex., sounds as if it could have its own ironic television show. “How do we program for such a diverse generation that doesn’t carry checkbooks, a lot of whom don’t carry cash, most of whom are delaying marriage and kids and have a high expectation of diversity and more college debt?”

Indeed. “Nothing gets all of them, but there are themes that do seem to matter,” said Tom Ascheim, president of Freeform, as the recently renamed ABC Family is now called. While Freeform’s target audience is mostly millennials, the channel is specifically geared to an age group — people from 18 to 34 — rather than a generation, on the grounds that what a generation wants changes as that generation becomes older.

“What unites our shows is that they center around young people in an adult world that revolves around them and that they have the power to shape,” Mr. Ascheim said.

That sounds right: Millennials do want to shape their world. “How long is this going to take?” said Stephane Rochefort, 33, who works in sales and was walking along the street when I asked him about his viewing habits. He had to go. “I don’t watch any TV, but I sometimes watch sports on the Internet,” he said, over his shoulder.

Three millennials in the finance industry whom I met in Lower Manhattan were just as difficult to pin down. Morgan Kiss, 23, said her favorite show was “Chopped,” because she is learning how to cook. Her roommate likes a program about real estate developers flipping houses. Natalie Urban, 22, likes “Game of Thrones.”

If there is one thing that unites them, it’s their creative way of paying for content (or not) in a world bursting with choice.

“We get our subscriptions through friends,” Ms. Urban said. Kate, the third millennial in the group, who did not want her last name used, mentioned a heady period when she was in possession of a friend’s ex-boyfriend’s friend’s dad’s HBO Go password. “They didn’t notice, but then he changed the password, so now I use Natalie’s,” she said.

Is there a representative millennial? No, just as there is no representative goat.

“I don’t think one person in my generation can be representative of the whole thing,” Ms. Kiss said. “There are so many different shows that are available to us. People can shape their own watching preferences. We can watch what we like.”

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page B1 of the New York edition with the headline: Viewing Habits of the Complex Millennial. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe